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Sympathy for the De Vil
Sympathy for the De Vil Episode Number: Season 4, Episode 19 Directed By: Romeo Tirone Air Date: April 19, 2015 Previous Episode: Heart of Gold Next Episode Lily "Sympathy for the De Vil" is the nineteenth episode of Season 4 of the American fairytale/drama series Once Upon a Time, which aired on April 19, 2015. In this episode, a young Cruella De Vil is tortured by her mother's evil use of her Dalmatians, resulting in her eventual confinement to her attic until a strange visitor tells her that she should stand up to her mother. In Storybrooke, Regina's plan to save Robin are put on hold when Henry is taken by Cruella, teaming her up with Emma Swan to save their son. Plot 'Opening Sequence' Dalmatian puppies run through the forest. 'Opening Sequence' The 1920s England events takes place a few years after Isaac became The Author in "Operation Mongoose, Part 1". The Storybrooke events takes place after "Heart of Gold". 'In the Character's Past' In 1920s England, a young Cruella De Vil is being mistreated by her mother Madeline as she instructs her Dalmatians to chase her daughter, and is locked in the attic in the same setting that resembles the novel Flowers in the Attic. Fast forward to several years later, and that a reporter, who is revealed to be The Author but is using an alias by the name of Isaac, is paying a visit to the home pretending to seek out a story after having seen Cruella from the attic, only to have Madeline warning him to stay away. Unfortunately, Isaac returns and helps Cruella escape from the attic. He then takes Cruella out for a date that includes dinner and dancing. Cruella reveals to Isaac that the reason she was kept in the attic was that she witnessed her mother kill her father and her succeeding husbands; Isaac then reveals to Cruella that he was more than just a reporter and has the ability to use his pen and ink to create magical stories. Isaac proposes that they run away together, and uses his quill and ink to give Cruella her persuasion powers to control animals. However, for Isaac, his future with Cruella would later take a unique twist that will put his future in danger. When Madeline pays a visit to see him, she tells him that Cruella had lied to him about what actually happened to her husbands: Cruella was a disturbed child psychopath who killed them, not Madeline, and was trying to prevent her from killing others by locking her away. When Madeline returns home, Cruella was ready for her, and eventually kills her mother by controlling her Dalmatians and commanding them to attack her. Afterwards, Isaac realized his quill was missing, so he pays a visit to see Cruella and is stunned that she used him as a means to an end, and Cruella used the skin from her mother's dogs as fur for her signature coat. The confrontation lead the two to fight over the ink, which is then spilled on Cruella, transforming her into the infamous black & white infused-hair character. As Cruella is about to kill him, Issac uses his powers as The Author to make it so that Cruella can never kill anyone ever again by writing it down on a piece of paper. As he leaves, Cruella tells him she's not done. 'Storybrooke' As Cruella races off into the forest, she is stopped in her tracks by Maleficent, who now knows that she was the one who knew where Lily went after they were sucked into the portal back in the Enchanted Forest. As Maleficent transforms into a dragon, Cruella uses her breath to exhale green smoke and puts her frenemy to sleep, then comes up with a plan to go after The Author. Meanwhile, Emma Swan is still arguing with Mary Margaret and David when Regina informs them about Zelena, prompting her to see Belle, who in turn interrupts Gold's plan to make The Author write stories, which in turn prompts Gold to come to the well to see her, and he reveals that his heart is darkening and he will die, only to discover that Belle is being controlled by Regina, who is using Belle's heart to make sure that Gold does not contact Zelena as Regina schemes to go to New York to confront her half-sister. Cruella then pays a visit to Isaac to make up for lost time and to offer him a deal, as Gold does not know that they knew each other as Isaac catches on to her deception. And since Isaac knows that Cruella has no power to kill anyone, Cruella, who tells Isaac that there are other ways to "skin an author," finds a way to make it happen by kidnapping Henry by using a controlled Pongo, which she uses to force both Emma and Regina to do her bidding by making the mothers kill Isaac or else Cruella will kill Henry. Unfortunately, as Gold returns to the cabin, he tells Isaac that he knew about his past with Cruella and informs Isaac about the kidnapping, which Gold knows will lead to Emma's darkness. Isaac then hands Gold a note he kept from the club. At the apartment, Emma, Regina, Hook, Mary Margaret and David discuss their plan of action but even this has Emma concerned. Regina, Emma and Hook search the woods just in time for Henry to escape from Cruella (while she is playing Angry Birds), but as the three split up and only Regina and Hook are tricked by seashells planted by Gold, its Emma who finds Henry, but Cruella is threatening to throw Henry off of the cliff, then tempts Emma's patience to see if she will do it, reminding her that heroes never kill. At the same time Mary Margaret and David confront Isaac, who reveals that a chapter in Emma's future will involve her turning dark and they race to stop her upon reading the note that revealed that Cruella is incapable of killing anyone. Unfortunately, they arrive just in time to see Emma use her powers and kill Cruella by knocking her off the cliff. As a terrified Henry cries in his mother's arms, Emma's face has changed to a sinister look, implying that her heart is going dark. Cast Starring *Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Mary Margaret Blanchard *Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan *Lana Parrilla as The Evil Queen/Regina Mills *Josh Dallas as Prince Charming/David Nolan/Prince James *Emilie de Ravin as Belle *Colin O'Donoghue as Hook *Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills *Michael Socha as Will Scarlet *Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold Guest Starring *Kristin Bauer van Straten as Maleficent *Victoria Smurfit as Cruella De Vil *Patrick Fischler as The Author/Isaac Heller *Anna Galvin as Madeline De Vil *Milli Wilkinson as Young Cruella Trivia Production Notes= *The title card features dalmatians running through the woods. *The title of this episode was announced by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on February 8, 2015. *The episode name is a reference to the The Rolling Stones' song "Sympathy for the Devil". Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis are fans of the band. *In an early version of the script, Cruella and her mother were both part of a dog psychic team. *Milli Wilkinson, who plays young Cruella, also plays Alice's daughter in the Once Upon a Time in Wonderland series finale "And They Lived...". *A digital facial replacement was used for Pongo's angry face. The dog was not actually snarling. The growls on Madeline's dalmatians were also digital. *Murray's Club was a real night club on Beak Street, London, which opened in 1913, and closed in 1975. Fittingly enough, the in-universe name of the song that Cruella hears on the radio is "The Toast of Beak Street". *Madeline states Cruella used trumpet flowers to poison her own father to death. She does not specify which type of trumpet flowers, but one possibility is the angel's trumpet, also commonly known as a trumpet flower, that has several different species and all have fatal effects if ingested. Although the episode was written by David H. Goodman and Jerome Schwartz, young Cruella using trumpet flowers as a murder weapon was Dana Horgan's idea. *After Emma kills Cruella, the sound of crows can be heard in the final shot of Emma. This is a subtle hint that Emma is sliding into darkness. Crow sounds were often edited in by the sound designers for Regina's Storybrooke scenes during Season 1. (Two examples are when she tells Emma to leave town in the "Pilot", and when she is talking to Sidney in "The Thing You Love Most"). |-|Other Notes= FILMING LOCATIONS *Cruella's attic was a set built on a sound stage. The rest of the house, was filmed on location, in a 1930s mansion in Vancouver. *The club scenes for this episode were filmed in the basement of the house, which was also used as Cruella and Madeline's house.